The present invention relates to the field of reversible spray tips for airless paint spraying.
Reversible tip assemblies for airless paint spraying typically have a saddle seal and elastomer washer for sealing the reversible tip turret in a housing on the front of a high pressure airless paint spray gun. Such assemblies require the removal and reinstallation or replacement of the saddle seal and washer frequently for cleaning and to maintain a leak-free assembly. In the past, it was difficult to install the saddle seal and washer because of the limited accessibility of the interior of the housing for the turret. Repeated attempts were often necessary to align and install the saddle seal and washer because of the inability to conveniently guide the saddle seal and washer into a closely intermitting bore in the housing receiving the saddle seal and washer. Prior art attempts to solve this problem have proved haphazard or costly, such as placing the saddle seal and washer on a pen or pencil tip to attempt to align the parts. Because of the conical nature of most pens and pencils, the saddle seal and washer were not held in alignment, but could rock or tilt during insertion, making the assembly process more difficult. Still another prior art attempt to solve this problem included machining a projection on the end of the turret or barrel to hold the saddle seal and/or washer, but was expensive to manufacture, because of the metal machining step required to obtain this projection.
The present invention overcomes shortcomings of the prior art by providing a stepped boss on one end of a plastic handle attached to the turret, with dimensions sized to closely interfit with the bores of the saddle seal and washer to maintain the saddle seal and washer in concentric alignment with each other, in right circular cylindrical alignment with the turret handle extension for ease of insertion of the saddle seal and washer into the housing. By molding the stepped boss on an end of the polymer handle, only a one-time tooling cost is incurred, thus greatly reducing the piece-part cost of manufacturing turrets as compared to machining a metal projection on each turret barrel.